The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-25
CONSTITUTION ATLANTA TUESDAY OCTOBER 25 1887

imous, out and out, unlimited Remuneration of
all hatreds and forgiveness of all foes. L ad-
NIT it is the most difficult of all graces to prac-
tlce, and at the start you may make COM
plete failure, but keep on in the attempt to
practice it, Shakespeare wrote ten PLAYS before
he reached Hamlet, and seventeen plays be-
fore he reached Merchant of Venice, and
twenty-eight plays before he reached Macbeth.
And gradually you will come from the easier
graces to the most difficult. Besides that il is
not a matter of personal determination so
much as the laying hold of the almighty arm
of God, who will help US to do anything that
we ought to do. Remember that in all per-
Sonal controversies the one least to blame will
have to take the first step at paoifcation if it is
ever effective. The contest between Aeschines
and ArstippuS resounds through history, but
Aristippus, who was least to blame, went to
AeachineS and said: '''Shall we not agree to
be friends before we make ourselves the laugh
ing stock of the whole country?" And Aea-
chimes said: Thou art a far better man than
l, for began the quarrel, but thou hast been
the first in healing the BREACH" and
they were always friends afterwards. So let
the one of you that is least to blame take the
first step toward Cancellation. The one most
i'll tho wrong will never take it. Oh, it makes
one feel sPlendidly to- ,+, be able by
forgiveness. 1t improves ones body and soul.
1t viii make you measure three or four more
inches around the chest and improve your re-
SEPARATION so that you can take q deeper and
longer breath. 1t improves the countenance
by scattering the gloom, and Frightening tho
forehead, and loosening the pinched look about
the nostril and lip, and makes you somewhat
like God himself. He is omnipotence and we
cannot copy that. He is independent of all
the universe, and we cannot copy that. He is
creative, and we cannot copy that. He is
omnipresent, and we cannot copy that.
But he forgives with broad sweep all
faults, and all neglects, and all
insults, and all wrong.doing, and in that we
NM yanrxr ,irI,4r
ness that sublime action of your soul to an au-
tumnal sunset, the hour when the gate of
heaven opens to let the day pass into the eter-
mites and some OF the glories escape this way
through the brief opening We talk about the
Italian sunsets, and sunset amid the Appen-
ines, and sunset amid the Corderillas. But
will tell you how you may see grander sunset
than any mere lover of nature ever beheld--
that is by finging into it all your hatreds, and
animosities, and let the horses of fire trample
them, and the chariots of fire roll
over them, and the spearmen of fire
stab them, and the beach of fire consume
them, and the pillows of fire overwhelm them.
The sublmest thing God does is the sunset.
The sublimest thing you can do is forgiveness.
Along the glowing banks of this coming even
tide let the divine and the human be concur
rent.
Again: We should not let the sun go down
on our wrath because it is of little importance
what the world says of you or does to you
when you have the affluent God of the sunset
as your provider and defender. People talk as
though 1t were fixed spectacle OF nature and
always the same. But no one ever saw two
sunsets alike, and if the world has existed six
thousand years there have been about two
million one hundred and ninety thousand
sunsets. each of them as distinct from
all the other pictures in the
gallery of the sky as Titians "Last Supper"
Rubenss descent from the Cross" Rap5hiaeis
TRANSPORTATION and Michael Angeles Last
Judgment are distinct from each other. If
that God, of such infinite resources that he
can put on the wall of the sky each night more
than the Louvre, and the Luxembourg, and
the Vatican, and the Dresden and Venetian
galleries all in one, is my God and your Goa,
our Provider and Protector, what is the use of
our worrying about any human antagonism?
IL we are misinterpreted the
God of the many coiored sunset
can put the right color on our action. If He
can afford to hang such masterpieces over the
outside wall of heaven and have them oblit-
Grated in an hour, He must be very rich i'll re-
sources and can put us through in safety. If
all the garniture of tho western heavens at
eventide is but the upholstery of one of the
windows of our future home, what small bust
ness for us to be chasing enemies Let not
this Sabbath sun 90 down upon your wrath.
Mahomet said: "The sword is the key of
heaven and hell, drop,of blood shed is better
than fasting, and wounds in the day Fof judg-
ment Respondent as vermillion, and odorifer-
Gus as musk" But, my hearers, in the last
day we will find just the opposite Of that to be
true and that the sword never unlocks heaven,
and that he who heals wounds is greater than
he who makes them, and that on the same
ring are two keys: Gods forgiveness of us and
our forgiveness of enemies, and these two keys
unlock paradise.
And now | wish for all of you beautiful
sunset in your earthly existence. With some
of you it has been long day of trouble, and
with others of you it will be far from calm.
When the sun rose at six o'clock it was the
morning of yOutb, and fair day was DrOphe-